BJP president Rajnath Singh, prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi hold copies of the election manifesto in New Delhi yesterday.

Agencies/New Delhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi yesterday pledged good governance and development as he released his party’s delayed manifesto that also included a promise to build a controversial Hindu temple.

Modi and other BJP leaders unveiled their blueprint for government just hours after polls opened in the world’s biggest election, which they are widely expected to win.

“Good governance and development (are) the two issues on which we are fighting these elections,” Modi said in New Delhi.

The 52-page manifesto also pledges to revise the country’s nuclear doctrine whose main principal is that New Delhi would not be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict.

Focusing on economic reforms, the document welcomed foreign direct investment by almost all companies - except by overseas supermarkets - in a bid to create much-needed jobs and kickstart the flagging economy.

The BJP pledged to simplify the taxation system, review labour laws, and focus on infrastructure such as new cities, high-speed railways, broadband Internet and build low-cost housing for families.

The party, voted out of power in 2004, also stuck to controversial Hindu nationalist ideals which worry religious minorities, particularly Muslims.

The BJP committed to a longstanding demand for the building of a temple on the site of India’s most notorious religious flashpoint.

The party in 1992 supported the destruction of the Babri mosque in the town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. Resulting riots left more than 2,000 people dead.

The manifesto also promised BJP support to end the slaughter of cows, which Hindus consider sacred, and to repeal special autonomous rights granted to Jammu and Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim-majority state.

The BJP also reiterated its intention to draft a uniform civil code for all Indians, a deeply sensitive and controversial issue which has always divided the population along religious lines.

The constitution allows the country’s billion-plus citizens to be governed by their own religious laws, a privilege enjoyed by minorities such as Muslims and Christians.

“This manifesto is not an election formality for us. This is our aim and our direction. Good governance and development is our goal,” Modi said after the release of the document.

“We have chalked out a plan to improve the economic situation in the country... As far as infrastructure is concerned, improving manufacturing is important and it needs to be export oriented. We need to build a Brand India,” senior BJP leader and head of the manifesto committee Murli Manohar Joshi said.

“The sooner we do it the better it would be to generate more jobs,” he added.

Joshi said the Ram temple issue was included in the manifesto because it was “culturally important,” but stressed that “Hindutva” (a Hindu nationalist agenda) was not on the election agenda.

The ruling Congress rubbished the manifesto as a hastily prepared document which promises programmes already underway over the past 10 years.

“There are two or three other features of the manifesto which invite comment. They have promised schemes which are already underway over the last 10 years,” Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

“For example, they are talking about introducing pension scheme - a national social assistance programme and pension for aged, widow and disabled already exists,” he said.

The minister also said the BJP was talking about implementing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which was announced by the Congress government long time back.

“They are then talking about identifying 100 backward districts but those have already been identified and even granted funds,” he said.

Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta raised the point of temple that the BJP has again promised to build.

“They have again come up with the slogan that Ram Mandir should be constructed, only with the intention of consolidating Hindu votes in the country,” he said.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Prakash Karat said: “The BJP manifesto is communal and divisive. It shows how dangerous the mix of Hindutva and corporate power could be.”